Repository of Cultural Treasures – Todaiji, Nara

During breakfast in the hotel, I wonder why my travel friends brought quite lots of white bread wrapping them with tissue papers, I thought they would eat them in the bus during our trip to Nara. When we arrived in the park, I’d just realized that they would like to feed the deers. Nara Park (Nara Koen) is a large, pleasant park in central Nara, established in 1880. The park is home to hundreds of freely roaming deer. Considered messengers of the Gods in Shinto, Nara's deer have become a symbol of the city and have even been designated a National Treasure. Actually you also could buy from the sellers in the park, something crispy for feeding them. My friend gave me some bread in the tissue paper, the roaming deer was not patient enough, they even ate the tissue paper, there’s not enough time for me to open it. Unfortunately I could not speak Japanese :-), so I could not prohibit them to eat it.

It is the location of many of Nara's main attractions including Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha, Kofukuji and the Nara National Museum (specialized in Buddhist art). Todaiji ("Great Eastern Temple") is one of Japan's most famous and historically significant temples and a landmark of Nara. By paying 500¥ you could enter the temple, which opens 7:30 (8:00 from Nov through Mar), closes 17:30 (16:30 from Nov through Feb, 17:00 in Mar and Oct). The main entrance to the temple is through the 13th-century Nandaimon (Great Southern Gate). It features two impressive guardian statues of the Nio (Benevolent Kings), carved in 1203 and each more than 8 meters tall.

Todaiji, a temple complex in the city of Nara in Nara Prefecture, was constructed in 752 on the order of Emperor Shomu as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan and grew so powerful that the capital was moved from Nara to Nagaoka in 784 in order to lower its influence on government affairs. At the time Buddhism was at its height, and served as a state religion. Todajji's main temple building, the Daibutsu-den (Great Buddha Hall), 48 meters (157 feet) in height, is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. This is especially impressive in light of the fact that the present reconstruction (from 1692) is only two thirds of the original temple's size. Within the precincts of the temple, aligned along one-kilometer north-south and east-west axes centered on the Daibutsu-den, are an array of other buildings, including halls and storehouses, seven of which are National Treasures. By virtue of being one of the major historical temples in Japan, Todaiji Temple also possesses many valuable cultural artifacts. More than 20 of these Buddhist statues and other works of art are National Treasures. The repository for them, Shosoin, lives up its name of the Treasure House of the World.


The original complex also contained two 100-meter-high pagodas, probably the tallest buildings in the world at the time, but these were destroyed by earthquake. Todaiji is famous for housing Japan's largest Buddha statue. It depicts the Buddha Vairocana and, like the one at Kamakura, is commonly known as the Daibutsu (Great Buddha). The Daibutsu is made of copper and bronze, weighs 250 tons and stands 30 meters tall. His intricate hairstyle is made of 966 bronze balls.

Also of interest in the Daibutsu-den are the rear support pillars, which have holes through the bottom. Popular belief has it that if one is successful in squeezing through one of these "healing pillars," he or she is guaranteed a place in Heaven. So many Japanese students visited the temple during my visit, some of them were dare to try to go through the hole. The hole was very narrow, it’s almost impossible for a fat girl or boy to go through it. Whenever anybody succeeded to go through, the people would give applauses.

Outside the Daibutsuden at the bottom of the steps, don't miss the bronze Octagonal Lantern, one of the oldest treasures in Todaiji — it dates from the original 8th-century temple. The lantern's support post is inscribed with a Buddhist text on the merits of lighting lanterns.